


Noise

by QueenOfTheMerryMen



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 00:24:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21262052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfTheMerryMen/pseuds/QueenOfTheMerryMen
Summary: After his untimely death, Roland tries to get to parents to see that he's still in their lives.





	Noise

Roland was six years old when he died. 

He thought his parents would be more angry with him about it. 

They’d put his favorite doll on the top shelf of the bookcase in his room before he went to sleep. They didn’t want it in bed with him but it was his favorite. He couldn’t sleep without it. 

He waited until the sun rose, then watched when his parents found his ice cold body beneath the bookshelf. They both screamed but not at him. No they didn’t give him a spare glance as they tearfully cradled the vessel he left behind. 

He tried very hard to comfort them but they never seemed to hear him. Not even when they put on the black clothes and went to the funeral. When you’re not alive memory becomes a tricky thing but he remembers the day of the funeral. 

He remembers all the people in black crying in his home. And his mother hiding in her bedroom, unleashing tears into one of his favorite shirts. 

Nobody talked to him that day. They all talked about him - sharing stories and thoughts - but no one talked to him or looked at him… or heard him. 

That was the day he realized he was in trouble. 

He spent a long time trying to get noticed. Speaking to his parents, trying to get them to speak back. But they never heard him… they seemed to think he was gone. 

They didn’t leave him at first. 

No, they stayed with him all the time but it was different. 

His father used to smile and tell jokes. His laugh was the best sound in the whole world as far as Roland was concerned. But he didn’t laugh or smile anymore, no matter how many jokes Roland told him and he told so many. Jokes about dogs and clowns, fish and teachers. His father never laughed. He just… sat. In front of the tv, in front of the fireplace, at the dinner table. He was still and silent. 

So was his mother. 

His mother used to do things. All his life she’d been busy with work, or baking, or projects, or him. She used to spend so much time with him playing in the yard, cooking dinner and working on grown-up projects she brought home. Now all she did was cry. In the bathroom, in her bed, sometimes in his room.She spent a lot of time in his room. Touching his things, smelling his clothes. It was almost like she missed him. 

But how could she? 

  
He was right here. 

A lot of time passes and they still don’t talk to him. He never stops trying to get their attention. Sometimes when he can make enough noise… they almost hear him. 

One night he whispered in his mother's ear as she slept. She shot straight up in bed, with tears in her eyes. 

She let his father hug her that night. 

One day he pushes the swing in the backyard so hard it goes over the top and his father nearly falls out of his chair on the patio. 

They know he’s here. They have to. 

He’s making as much noise as he can but they keep ignoring him. It’s starting to make him angry. Sometimes he gets so angry that it shakes the windows and burns candle wicks. He just wants them to speak to him, love him again. 

So he makes noise. He cracks windows and slams doors. He bounces his favorite ball. At night he sits at the foot of their bed watching them sleep and retelling them the stories they used to tell him before he died. 

He knows he’s scaring them. He feels bad about it too. 

But he just wants them to stop acting like he’s gone. He’s isn’t. 

One night he hears them talking in bed. Wrinkles line his father’s forehead as tears run down his mother’s cheek. His heart shatters as she begs him to leave. 

“I won’t raise another child here. Not in this house.” 

He doesn’t stop shouting until the day they leave. He begs them, pleads with them, screams at them, cries to them… but they don’t hear a word. 

They simply pack their boxes, sell their furniture and place a sign in the yard. 

And finally when the house is cold and still and empty… they say goodbye. 

His father stealthily sheds a tear, promising his mother that he’ll be waiting for her in the car. 

And when she’s finally alone, his mother goes straight to his room, lies on the ground where his bed used to stand and tries her best to breathe as she cries. 

“I’m so sorry my little knight.” 

He watches from the window as they climb into the moving truck. His father gives the house one final look as the truck backs down the driveway and for a moment, his eyes glance up at the window to his bedroom. He pauses and his lips part in shock. At that moment, Roland knows beyond doubt that his father has seen him. 

He stays at the window long after they’ve gone. He’s so sad his heart can barely contain it. Against his will, his despair seeps from him pouring into the walls and windows, until even the bones of the house are coated with his sadness. 

He was alone now. 

And would be for quite awhile. 

Until a few months later when a new moving truck pulls into the driveway and out climbs a family. A mother, a father, a daughter and a son. 

Suddenly Roland feels hope. 

Perhaps this new family can help him find the way to his old one. 

If only he could make enough noise…. 


End file.
